An Auckland couple is selling their family home to travel overseas with their kids.
Kaycee and Karl Nicholas, who own construction business KN Construction, have decided to pause their business and sell their completely rebuilt home at 97 Barrack Road, Mount Wellington.
“We thought we’ll go and be free overseas. The travelling idea came about in Covid when we couldn’t get any building materials and we nearly had to shut down because of it,” Kaycee told OneRoof.
The couple had tossed up whether to just rent the house out, but decided they wanted to come back and start a new building project.
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“We thought we’d go and be free overseas.”
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The trip was prompted by the building industry disruption during 2020 and 2021.
“We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the family. For some people Covid was such a tough time, but for us it cemented what was really important and that was spending time with our family, so we sort of had that dream since then.”
The 1950s house was completely refurbished and now has five bedrooms, including a one-bedroom self-contained studio. Photo / Supplied
The open-plan kitchen and living area. Photo/ Supplied
With daughters now aged nine and seven, the couple had initially looked at a campervan road trip around Australia, but switched their focus to South East Asia after researching costs of both destinations. So far, the itinerary covers Bali, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“We’re not quite backpacking, we’ll be staying in Airbnbs and serviced apartments.
“We fly out of here 11th of July.”
In 2015, the Nicholases completely rebuilt their house that they’d bought two years before, turning the original 1950s place into an almost-new five-bedroom, three-bathroom home. They added a self-contained one-bedroom flat and a generous garage, as well as a huge open-plan kitchen and dining room that opens to decks and garden. There is an office, storage space and plenty of parking.
“We’ve enjoyed living here, but we want to do it again,” Karl said, explaining their choice of selling the house rather than renting it out while they travelled. He added that the kids were sad about selling their childhood home, but quickly came on board when their parents promised the new house would have a swimming pool.
The couple have been able to pause their construction business, lining up other jobs for their team and getting current projects done and dusted before their July departure.
The fourth bedroom/media room. Photo / Supplied
The house and garden were completely refurbished in 2015. Photo / Supplied
As well as the kids’ must-see list (monkeys in Bali, elephants in Thailand), the Nicholases are keen to expose them to other cultures and religions.
“We don’t want to do too much tourism stuff, we just want to be really involved in the culture so they can learn about other [cultures].”
Friends and family are behind the plan to see the world and completely switch off from business.
“We’re living the dream. We’re living, rather than just grinding. Everybody says they wish they could do this,” said Kaycee.
“This is the first Christmas ever that we didn’t have our builders working through. So even though we have gone on holidays, Karl has never been able to switch off because he’s still running projects while we’re away on holiday.
“I was paying guys the day I was giving birth. Karl and I run everything. It was really difficult for us when we came back from Covid, so that’s when we made the decision. It was a terrible time, that last year or two, but we’ve had an amazing few years since then.
“It’s slowing down a bit again, that’s why we are going on holiday [now].”
The couple said they had spoken to a few people who have done the same thing when they were kids and they remember it vividly.
“It’s nice to know the kids will have [this], it will impact them for their whole life.”
Barfoot & Thompson agents Barbara and Stanley Armon are marketing the house on a 738sqm site with an auction set for March 20. OneRoof records show the property, which is close to Sylvia Park and Panmure train station, has a current CV of $1.65 million.
- 97 Barrack Road, Mount Wellington goes to auction March 20
